Dunedin Xbox fanatic (84) on a quest

Joan Reynolds, who turned 84 yesterday, is on a quest to reach the end of Oblivion.

But she is far from optimistic she has time on her side.

"I don't think I will live long enough to see the end of it. If I was to live to 100, maybe then . . ."

Oblivion is Mrs Reynolds' favourite Xbox game.

"It requires a bit more thinking than the other shooting up games."

Not content to confine herself to card games, like her elderly friends, this Harwood widow has become something of an Xbox addict, willing to try any new game that does not have too much violence.

"I like adventure games. I don't like ones with things shooting around the sky. That's too fast for me."

She has been told she may well be the oldest Xbox player in New Zealand.

She prefers Xbox to computers that have become "a bit complicated" for her.

Mrs Reynolds plays Oblivion as a "good" male character "because I think as a kid I was a tomboy. I had two older brothers and I played with boys. And I can remember when I was young I used to think it wasn't fair me being a girl."

Although avoiding the more violent games, she still has no difficulty wielding swords and guns as she battles towards the next level and has made it through to the completion of a couple of Xbox games.

Mrs Reynolds cannot understand why her elderly friends prefer to use their computers to play card games.

"I don't think they can understand me any more than I can understand them."

Before getting married and having three children, Mrs Reynolds worked at the Roslyn woollen mills as a darner, repairing holes in cloth as it came out of the weaving machines.

"It was like so many of these jobs. Your mind is free to wander."

She remembers the first "ping pong" computer game she encountered many years ago in Christchurch.

"That was quite fascinating."

But for her birthday yesterday, Mrs Reynolds did not expect and did not receive any new games because, she says, she already has more than enough.

mark.price@odt.co.nz